Unreviewed Cruentomycena Viscera (Bloody Bonnet)

[Madrona A’Mia]

Cruentomycena Viscera aka "Bloody Bonnet"

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a new, horrific organism that originates from Brosi. It is a direct mutation/ consequence of the fighting there between Sith and Imperials
• Image Credit: Mushroom photographs of Cruentomycena viscidocruenta shared by @fungalrealm on Instagram. "Red Spores" on Shutterstock. Skin Kites from D&D 5e, Wizards of the Coast. Scenery generated in Midjourney.
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: Brosi, Spore Industries, and A'Mia Madrona

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Name: Cruentomycena Viscera aka "Bloody Bonnet"
• Origins: Brosi
• Other Locations: This fungi can readily adapt to tropical, sub tropical, equatorial, and temperate environs.
• Classification: Fungi
• Average Growth Cycle: From spore to parasitic flesh reaver to fruiting body known as the "Bloody Bonnet" it takes roughly one to two weeks for this parasitic fungi to complete one lifecycle. This is dependent on environmental factors and availability of necessary nutrients.
• Viability: These organisms might be considered extremophiles given the way they can flourish in nearly any environment where fleshy organisms also exist. They do not required sunlight or water, save for the spore stage which benefits from radiation and the reaver stage which get hydration from the meat of their hosts and victims.
  
  These fungi do not require soil, nor are they limited to the environment that they originate from. Their spores can travel far and wide via wind, rain, other organisms acting as carriers, or if purposefully transported. The reaver stage of their lifecycle allows them to use meat and muscle stolen from their hosts to propel themselves through the air, swim, or clumsily crawl through confined spaces.
• Description: This parasitic fungus is exceedingly adaptive and capable of surviving in extreme environments, its average lifecycle takes 2 to 4 weeks to complete and spores can lay in dormancy for decades or perhaps even centuries. In all stages of their lifecycle they have red-brown coloration and their fungal blooms are blood red.

Spores, seen under microscope.

Fruiting body, Bloody Bonnet mushroom.​

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

• Average Height/ Average Length: Spores - microscopic, Parasitic Flesh Reaver - begins roughly the size of a standard dinner plate and grows to roughly the size of a standard two person speeder (3.5 meters long/wide), Fruiting Body aka mushrooms — a few inches tall.
• Color: Red-brown, this mycelial creature has a gore-like appearance in all its stages of life.
• Nutritional Value: Few creatures could receive nutritional value in eating this organism at any stage of its life
• Toxicity: Ingestion can cause blood poisoning. This fungi is also infectious at all stages of its life. If ingested, the organism that ate it will soon be host to a parasitic flesh reaver.
• Other Effects: Toxic, infectious and equipped with acid.
• Distinctions & Life Cyle: This fungi is a unique organism that first mutated from a more mundane mushroom on Brosi. After much exposure to fire, radiation and regenerative sorcery, Cruentomycena Viscera is an incredibly hardy and voracious parasitic fungus that utilizes very basic flesh crafting in the middle of its lifecycle and feeds itself on living or recently dead meat. This carnivorous mycelial organism has three distinct lifecycles:

1. Spore — Microscopic "seed" stage that can readily become airborne, carried through water or transmitted through blood. These spores need favorable circumstances to germinate, such as fire or heavy exposure to radiation, but they can remain intact and dormant in a given environment or host for a very long time. Germination can occur when enough cellular damage has worn down the protective casing of the microscopic organism.
   
   
2. Parasitic Flesh Reaver — This is the most bombastic stage of the lifecycle wherein a hatched spore has found a host to grow in. As the spore grows, it becomes a fleshy mass somewhere buried deep within the host, which is usually none the wiser that it is infected. Using mycelial tendrils, the tiny reavers pull cells/ biomass from the host to itself to form its body. When the reaver is fully formed (after a handful of days) and has become roughly .3 meters wide/long, the parasitic fungal creature hatches from within the hosts body violently. The host usually sustains terrible injury and their flesh begins to rapidly decay, sloughing off their skeletal structure to become a red-brow oozing slime mold while the newly hatched reaver seeks fresh meat to grow itself fat on.
   
   These creatures hunt with uncanny sense of their surroundings, using reverberations (echolocation), hormone sense and pack tactics. Due to the nature of how spores spreads and the circumstances under which they hatch, reavers tend to sweep over an area in droves. With hearing and scent as their strongest senses, these creatures produce a horrific high octave scream while honing in and spit a stinking blood red acid onto intended prey. The acid attack is also an important part of their digestive process, as they then eat the slurry created.

After gorging themselves for a few days, the reavers grow to about 3.5 meters in size and seek soil or rubble to bury themselves beneath. They can also survive in semi aquatic environments such as swamps, meadows, or near seasonal bodies of water, but tend to prefer soil, sand, rocky, or urban terrain. Once they've successfully buried themselves, they go dormant in preparation of the last phase of their lifecycle.​

1. Fruiting Body — The organism blooms in hundreds of tiny mushrooms.These blood red, sticky looking bells can push themselves up through many different kinds of obstacles and they disperse new Spores at the slightest provocation of wind, vibration or touch. This bloom lasts for no more than 48 hours.

Parasitic Flesh Reaver

Strengths:

• Pyrophyte — This organism loves friendly fire. It actually spreads more readily in the presence of flame and every stage of its lifecycle is resistant to all forms of fire damage. Similarly, this organism is simply immune to radiation, and most acids have no impact on them due to their unique digestive process.
• Proliferation and Persistence — The survival strategy employed by this fungus is abundance and hardiness. Bloody Bonnets release tens of thousands of spores, reavers can grow within nearly any fleshy organism, and the mushrooms will bloom in even subpar conditions. Though not particularly hard to kill as individual, this organism benefits from having sheer overwhelming numbers on its side.
• Uncanny Senses — These fungal terrors have impeccable hearing and smell, plus a strategy of hunting in flocks. This makes them very hard to hide from if you are a moving, respirating organism that isn't locked safely into an airtight space. Their unsettling screams as they hone in on prey can also be demoralizing to some.
• Acid attack — As a function of their digestion, these creatures spit a blood red biological xenoboric acid

Weaknesses:

• Cold — This organism cannot survive in sub-polar or polar regions. Extreme cold will outright kill all life stages of this creature save for the spores, which can withstand the subzero temperatures with losses of 90% of existing spore matter.
• Fungicide and Defoliant — Certain powerful fungicides and defoliants can weaken or kill this organism at all stages of its lifecycle.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Born upon a planet first ravaged by strip mining by the Sith Order, then warred upon not once but twice by Sith and Imperial forces, the "Bloody Bonnet" fungus is an organism that arose from extreme hardship. Once a humble variety of mycelium, this creature adapted rapidly amongst viral infection, rampant wildfires, and nuclear weapons unleashing large amounts of radiation across swaths of the land.

These hearty creatures are opportunists that strike when conditions are right And can lay dormant in their spore stage for decades or centuries. Once unleashed, they will sweep across populated areas to ravage in the same way locusts will strip miles crop land. On Brosi, a harsh and competitive rainforest world, these creatures are merely a part of that brutal ecosystem. If the spores of this mycelial monster find themselves upon other planets across the galaxy? Well, they're likely to be considered one of the most invasive species yet discovered.

Aftermath of Bloody Bonnet spreading through a sentient population.​